What customers should know about water rates

City water rates won't change, but the billing process will be in transition in the next few months as the Reading Area Water Authority takes over printing and mailing its own bills.

Customers not only will get different-looking bills, they'll also pay them a different way. But there will be more options.

Complaints

Customers with questions or complaints previously called or visited the authority's cramped office in City Hall, but that office closed late last week.

What to do now:

• Go to the new headquarters at 1801 Kutztown Road, which has more customer service representatives than could fit in City Hall.

• Call the authority at its new phone number: 610-406-6300.

• Visit www.readingareawater.com for information or to email a question or complaint.

• Call the city's Citizen Service Center at 877-727-3234, which will forward calls to the water authority.

Bills

The bills that customers receive next week still will be printed by the city and must be paid the normal way, either by mailing a check to Wells Fargo in Philadelphia or paying in the City Hall treasury office.

The bills that customers receive in June, however, will be printed by the authority, and payments will made differently:

• Mail a check to a Lancaster address (on the bill) of Fulton Bank.

• Pay at any of several Fulton Bank branches in the area with a check or money order.

• Beginning in July, visit www.readingareawater.com to start an account using the "My RAWA Account" link in the upper right corner, and pay by credit or debit card.

• After the switch over, customers won't be able to pay water and sewer bills in the Treasury office.

• Also, like its old offices, the authority's new offices will not accept payments.

Later

The city's quarterly trash and recycling bills are expected to be added to the authority's monthly water and sewer bills later this year.

The move is expected to save the city about $150,000 in postage per year.